


Battleships and Cookie Dough

by flummoxed_angel



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Anya Jenkins mention, Gen, Xander Harris mention - Freeform, dad Giles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:00:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27677063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flummoxed_angel/pseuds/flummoxed_angel
Summary: Giles comes over to watch Dawn while Joyce is out on a date, and the two of them play Battleship to pass the time. Giles gets oddly competitive.
Kudos: 7





	Battleships and Cookie Dough

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to @coldandabsurd on Twitter for the prompt for this lil' fic! I went way off the prompt by accident, Battleship was not supposed to happen haha
> 
> This is just a silly one shot done purely for fun, hope you enjoy!

It was early evening, and Giles was making his way to the Summers household to babysit Dawn. This was normally Anya and Xander’s job, but being friends of the slayer of course they were busy, and Joyce was leaving for a date. The first in a long while. He could recall watching Dawn one other time a few years back - the last time Joyce had gone on a date, with a killer robot - and he smiled at the memory, before inevitably remembering that the memory had been fabricated along with all the others of Dawn. 

He shook his thoughts and instead tried to mentally prepare himself for the long, torturous evening he was about to endure. He’d already had some experience spending time with Dawn, and it usually consisted of her talking about school and things she likes, and him listening. This time he’d brought some reading material and research notes so he’d have something to distract him, should he need it. As he pulled up to the house, he spotted Dawn in the window waiting for him. She waved through the glass and he smiled from his car. He grabbed his duffel bag out of the back seat and made his way to the door with a deep breath. It swung open almost immediately and he was met by Joyce, who nearly ran straight into him.

“Oh!” She laughed, pampering and messing with her hair. “Mr. Giles, you’re here.”

“Yes- yes um, for Dawn.”

“Yes! She’s right inside, let me just, my ride’s here.” She scooted past him, smiling ecstatically before turning back to him for a moment. 

“You two, don’t have too much fun.” Giles raised his eyebrows and hung awkwardly in the doorway.

“Uh w-” He let out a small chuckle, “We’ll- we’ll try not to! Have a lovely-” She practically ran out to get in her date’s car.

“Time…” And with that, she was off. He turned briskly to the door and met Dawn, who was watching as her mother left.

“Hello.”

“Hey.” Dawn replied, her eyes still fixed. She was intensely eyeing her mother’s date, who had come around the side of his car to open the door for Joyce. Giles stepped in her line of sight.

“Come now, it’s rude to stare.” He gently shoveled her back into the house just before latching the door and looking through the top window to watch the two of them drive off.

“Hypocrite.” Dawn sneered from behind him.

He turned and clicked his tongue, making his way to the living room to sit his bag down next to the armchair. Dawn smiled and practically skipped in behind him. She loved when she could hang out with Giles. it gave her an opportunity to see a softer side of him. No researching demons, no listening to boring Slayer talks, just hanging out. Plus, it was fun to annoy him a little.

Giles made his way to the kitchen to make tea for the two of them, it was always the first thing he did. He’d bought a nice tea set for the Summers household after being appalled at the discovery that they’d had no way to make proper tea all this time. It seemed like it was only used when he was around. Dawn followed him into the kitchen and sat at the island with her chin in her hands.

“So, what d’you wanna do?” It was the weekend, so she’d planned on staying in to watch TV or something. 

“Xander and Anya left a bunch of board games from last time they came over, that’s what we usually do. Play board games. It’s less fun with Anya around, but Xander… he’s-” She stopped herself when Giles turned and raised an eyebrow.

“We could play Battleship!” She ended her sentence with a smile.

“Whatever you like.” He replied, turning back to continue tea-making. As soon as he finished his sentence, he realised he had no idea how to play Battleship. _This should be interesting,_ he thought. _Or frightfully dull._ Dawn went on listing off all the other board games they had. He considered asking if they owned a chess board, before realising that chess probably wasn’t the best to entertain a fourteen-year-old girl. He thought he’d quite like to teach her to play, though. That would at least engage his mind well enough. Alas, he settled on Battleship. 

When tea was finished, he joined Dawn on the floor in the living room, the coffee table between them. Dawn handed him his board and he opened it up, squinting at the contents inside. He hoped to god that this wouldn’t be completely intolerable. 

“Oh!” Dawn suddenly bolted up and ran to the kitchen, returning with a radio, which she sat in between their Battleship boards. Giles looked in horror at the device that sat before him. Nothing could have prepared him for the sound he was about to be subjected to, and he knew it. 

“We gotta have theme music!” 

He watched as Dawn smiled wide and switched on the radio. The sound that came out could barely pass as music, he thought. And the volume at which it was playing was quite frankly ridiculous. He tried his best to listen as Dawn explained the rules of the game. He caught about half of it. He was visibly wincing at the amount of noise, but she didn’t seem to pay any mind. 

“Okay, you got all that?”

Giles nodded and adjusted his legs under the table. The floor was an extremely uncomfortable alternative to every other seating option in the entire house.

“You go first!” She exclaimed.

“Oh, er-- Yes.” He made a series of mumbled sounds before sighing and removing his glasses. “Dawn, would you _please_ turn that noise down, I can’t hear my own thoughts.” She apologized and fiddled with the volume for about thirty seconds before she found the perfect volume. He sighed in relief and she watched closely as he returned his glasses to his face and made up his mind.

“Um, I suppose-- A-A5.” He stated and looked up expectantly.

“Miss!” She replied happily and he shrugged. He wasn’t too thrilled about this game yet. “Giles you gotta put one of the white thingies where you missed.” Ah there’s one of the steps he hadn’t heard over the music.

“Oh, y-yes, right.” He gingerly placed a white marker in the space he missed, after nearly dropping the small piece a few times.

“Okay, D3!” She said with confidence and eyed him through her finger which she had pointed at him like an imaginary gun. Giles squinted at the board, and sure enough, it hit the edge of the first ship he’d placed.

“I believe that was a ‘hit.’” He replied with just a hint of disappointment in his voice.

“Yes!” She cheered, and happily marked the spot with a red piece. “Now I get to go again, since I hit one.”

This was not an actual rule, but one her and Buffy had made up when they used to play together before Buffy started high school.

They sat for about half an hour, Dawn hitting his ships nearly every one of her turns, and Giles’ hit to miss ratio embarrassingly out of proportion. He’d missed five times in a row and Dawn was surprised at how competitive he started to get. Now he was down to one, the largest ship, and she had already hit two of the spaces on it. 

“G4!”

“...Hit.” He reluctantly marked his ship with another red piece. His free hand was rubbing his temple.

“Yes! Hmm, how ‘bout G...3?”

He glanced up at her over the board with a deadpan expression, and she simply smiled back in anticipation.

“ _Hit_.” He answered, extremely unhappily.

“Oh, oh! I only have to get one more hit before I win!”

“Wonderful.” He replied with a roll of his eyes. He waited in anticipation, eyebrows raised at her across the table. She had a mischievous look in her eye, he thought for sure she was going to sink this last ship. He was disappointed, but not surprised, though he was impressed at her technique.

“G2!” She exclaimed once more. Giles looked down and expected her to have gotten another hit, but she’d missed.

“Aha!” He said, and composed himself. “...Miss.” That felt good to say. He wasn’t sure when he had started to get competitive, or why, but now maybe he had a chance at winning. He studied his battleship board carefully before making a decision.

“B…” He paused, looking at Dawn to gauge her reaction. There was a slight twitch in her eye, and he was now confident in his decision. He sat up straight and crossed his arms. “Seven.” He finished. Dawn let him hang in anticipation for a moment before confirming his loss.

“Ooh, miss, sorry!” She happily sat back and watched as he sighed and rubbed his temple with his left hand, while placing another white marker on his board. He knew he was done for. Dawn wiggled excitedly in her spot on the floor and readied herself for victory.

“G5?” She questioned, trying to contain her smile by pressing her lips together.

“Blast!” Giles replied, placing the final red marker that represented his pathetic defeat. Dawn cheered and reveled in her victory, already excited to mark another Dawn Summers Battleship victory to her diary. Giles reluctantly pulled all the pieces off of his board and placed them in their subsequent spots with a grumble. Dawn did a final victory dance on the floor before taking both of their boards and putting them back in the box. Giles made his way off the floor and into the armchair behind him.

“So, are ya hungry? We’ve got cookie dough!” Dawn offered happily. Giles raised an eyebrow and sighed.

“Why not? May as well drown my sorrows in sweets.”


End file.
